Some of my best friends are Dodgers fans …

At Dodgers Stadium in 1995. Everyone’s in their seats so it must be the fifth inning.

I remember the first call to my mother, after meeting my college roommate in the freshman dorm at Cal Poly in 1988. It was still a week before class started, and Gregg and I had probably spoken for less than 10 minutes.

“He’s a Rams fan,” I told my mom, a bit dejected.

I let her know that Gregg was a Dodgers fan as well, but in our household that was like being arrested for shoplifting a candy bar in addition to robbing a bank. We were football fans first, and in the late 1980s, the Los Angeles Rams were still the enemy.

Going to school halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, I picked up other friends who were Dodgers fans. Joe, who worked with me for two years on our college newspaper and later became a roommate, was a particularly outspoken supporter of the Dodger blue. For the past 20 years, I’ve received semi-regular, completely random, anti-Giants messages from him. The technology changes but the message is always the same. “Your team sucks” has shown up on my telephone answering machines (both analog and digital), by e-mail and now as a Facebook update. Before I die, I have no doubt I’ll hear those three words in a hologram.

By the time I got married, two of the three guys in my wedding party were Dodgers fans. (And the third rooted for the Padres.) And while I continued to hate aggressively root against the team, I learned to love the rivalry. It’s one of my favorite parts of baseball. That wonderful and endless circle of taunting between Dodgers and Giants fans.

The response after the vicious attack on Giants fan Bryan Stow has been moving, and I think that both teams showed a lot of class during last night’s tribute to the paramedic at AT&T Park. I’d also like to think that what happened to him was an act of criminals — more of a lightning strike than an epidemic.

My friend Joe and family. Yes, that’s their dog.

I worry that the rest of the world has been getting the impression that every Dodgers/Giants game is like “Braveheart,” or at least the last 15 minutes of “The Outsiders.” I lived in Los Angeles from 1995 until 1999. And while I still haven’t admitted the following to my mother, I came to enjoy the Dodgers fans. Gregg and I became good friends, lived together throughout college and have been going to both Giants and Dodgers Spring Training games for more than a decade. The sports rivalry has definitely strengthened the friendship.

So in the spirit of peace between tribes, I’m going to list the five things I like the most about Dodgers fans. Enjoy it, Gregg and Joe. I’m going to pretend as if it didn’t happen tomorrow.

1. Dodger fans are knowledgeable. The stereotype that Dodgers fans arrive in the 3rd inning and leave for home in the 7th has some truth to it. But in their defense, traffic near the stadium during rush hour is like the MacArthur Maze times 10, and the public transportation options in that part of Los Angeles are close to zero. Most Dodgers fans I’ve met follow the game closely, root for the team passionately and have a sound knowledge of the history of the team. I’m sure the ticket-holders who arrive late are listening to the game in their cars.

2. Dodger fans can be very chill. My friends Joe and Stephanie once brought their dog into the stadium. And it wasn’t a little “Legally Blonde”-style lap dog. Mia could have probably carried me in by horseback. The ushers just kind of let it happen. Why? Because the majority of Dodger fans are chill. Another example: I used to see celebrities at the game all the time — everyone from Jason Bateman to Kurtwood Smith — sitting in the seats with everyone else. Other than my idiot response from 20 feet away (Dude! That’s the a**hole dad from “Dead Poet’s Society”!), everyone seemed to ignore them and let them be. I liked that about Dodgers fans.

3a. Vin Scully rules. I wouldn’t trade the Giants announcing team. Jon Miller is a pleasure to listen to. Duane Kuiper is underrated. Dave Fleming has turned into my favorite local announcer. Even the constant pro-Giants line from Mike Krukow (Aubrey Huff just misplayed another fly ball in right field — someone cut to a kid in the stands eating ice cream!) has become endearing. But Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully is on another plane … from the rest of humanity.

With three L.A. friends in 1999. I was a big Eddie Vedder fan.

3b. So do Dodgers Dogs. They’re not as good as Vin Scully, but definitely an enjoyable part of the game. Other nice things about Dodgers Stadium: They don’t offer WiFi, and last I checked still feature an organ player.

4. Dodgers fans often dress nice. OK, I’m running out of nice things to say and this is a bit of a stretch. (Should have kept it at three …) But I was always impressed with how many men showed up from work in crisp shirts and stylish sunglasses, like they were going to a game in the 1950s, or trying out for a part in “L.A. Confidential.” More than my Giants hat, I stood out because I arrived at games dressed like I was about to go jam with Nirvana. Even in the bleachers in the 1990s, you didn’t see much flannel at Dodgers Stadium.

5. Dodgers fans very rarely throw beer on Giants fans. I was pretty scrawny when I was in my 20s, and in more than a dozen games wearing Giants colors at Dodgers Stadium, I don’t remember anyone seriously messing with me. In my experience, the Giants are much more fixated on hating the Dodgers, and most Dodgers fans like to act as if they don’t notice. It’s like an elementary school romance that way. No doubt there are exceptions, and the stadium clearly has security problems it needs to work out. But it’s way off to brand all Dodger fans as thugs.

Let the healing continue. Are you a Giants or Dodgers fan? Feel free to say something nice about the other team in the comments. (SF fans — make sure you revert back to pro-Giants form before tonight’s game.)

PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder of this parenting blog, which admittedly sometimes has nothing to do with parenting. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/peterhartlaub. Your questions answered on VYou at www.vyou.com/peterhartlaub.